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2013: My Year In Review

Since this is a personal blog, I figured that instead of writing a year-end review about other things, it would be better suited for me to give a year-end review of things that actually happened in my life. It’s much easier to do something like this now since chances are I captured those moments with my phone, giving me photographic proof of the events.

With all of that out of the way, here’s a month-by-month photo essay of how things went with me and the family in 2013, some of which was never mentioned here on the blog. Take a virtual trip of the things we did, places we saw, events that brought us happiness, triumph, and even sadness.

I ran the Coaster Run, my first official 10k. I dedicated the medal to the memory of my Uncle Lou Cruz, author and mentor, who passed away nine days prior.

We embarrassed Anthony at Toys R Us for his birthday.

We built a firepit in the backyard. To this day, we’ve only used it twice.

April 2013

I realized that with the mileage the Yaris gets, I won’t ever need a hybrid.

I ran my 2nd 10k of the year, the Hollywood Half 5k/10k. As my certificate indicates I was a little ambitious about doing the half marathon in 2014 but as things would happen, it looks like I might not do this event at all. All runs for this event are expensive.

On October 13, Anthony ran in the Aquarium of the Pacific Kids Fun Run, his first official event. The next day I rode 20 miles in the Long Beach Bike Tour then ran 5k afterward for my first duathlon. This is probably one of my favorite pictures ever and chances are it will remain my Facebook profile picture for as long as I use it. I’m proud of him as well myself for sticking with my personal goal to complete both events. And guess what? I’m already signed up to do them again in 2014.

I had to make more room on my wall for medals.

Anthony created his own little zen space under his (yes, his) apple tree in the backyard.

I was thankful I never got this big. I made it to XXL but am now an L, only occasionally opting for XL when buying running gear. Loose is more confortable.

A rather large possum paid us a visit. It was staring at me as I sat in the lounge chair in the den and totally freaked me out, but I quickly grabbed my phone and took this shot. We’ve since named him Harold but have to make sure Arliss’ food is covered or he’ll eat it all.

We made several trips to Knott’s Berry Farm throughout the year but here’s a shot from our last one. The snow was added through Google Auto-Awesome.

For the first time in her life, Ann made tamales and they were a HUGE success!

Here’s when I wish WordPress would implement the [anchor] tag. Remember that picture posted in January that I told you to make a mental note of? Here’s the same statue in transit. We just happened to come across it while going to dinner one night. I posted this on Facebook where it was seen by a local newspaper writer and there’s a good chance it will be used very soon. Stay posted!

…and enjoyed just another lovely southern California December morning.

Well, there’s our year summed up nicely with pictures. And unless anything interesting happens within the next 24 hours or so, that’s a wrap on 2013.

I just want to take a moment to wish all of you a very happy, prosperous, and peaceful 2014. While still jobless, I’m still confident that something will come my way in the very near future and if not, then there’s still not a whole lot to be miserable about. We’ve got our health, a roof overhead, and a strong family unit. I can’t ask for much else.

Happy New Year to you and yours, and thanks for coming along on this long photographic year-end journey. May your 2014 be everything you expected and more. Cheers!